Internationalisation, intercultural communication and intercultural ...

Journal of Intercultural Communication, Issue 11, 2006
J. Stier
Ideologies of Higher Education
With Edward Hall’s (1976) discussion on education as a point of departure; is education
simply an example of how humankind has created complex institutions to do and
enhance what people once did for themselves? And is education up to par with the
society of which it is an integral part? Almost seventy years ago John Dewey wrote:
Learning…means acquisition of what already is incorporated in books and in the heads of
the elders. Moreover, that which is taught is thought of as essentially static. It is taught as a
finished product, with little regard either to the ways in which it was originally built up or
to changes that will surely occur in the future. It is to a large extent the cultural product of
societies that assumed the future would be much like the past, and yet it is used as
educational food in a society where change is the rule, not the exception (Dewey 1938:19).
Few people today would claim that the world is static. Rather, it is axiomatic that a
rapidly changing and increasingly global, multicultural world requires increasingly
complex skills and knowledge from people. Yet educational institutions are not fully
prepared to accommodate the needs of late modernity, nor is the human potential to
learn and obtain such ‘new’ competencies fully adequate – two facts which have lead
higher education to formulate internationalisation-policies and develop ICE in various
guises. Even if a trend toward convergence is visible, still diverging or even contradictory
ideologies 1 seemingly guide internationalization in higher education (Stier 2004a).
I refer to these as idealism, instrumentalism and educationalism.
Idealism draws from a normative assumption that internationalisation is good per
se. It serves to highlight global life-conditions and social injustices and offers an
emancipatory worldview:
Common international concerns and an inter-dependence of nations demand that students
and faculty members... are productive and aware citizens of the State, the US and the
world. (Excerpt, Policy on Internationalisation at an American university)
These insights are believed to urge students to actively demand a global resourceredistribution
and to ensure every person in the world a decent living-standard.
Internationalisation should also induce tolerance and respect, in students. With this
being said it may contribute to a democratic, fair and equal world (Stier 2004a). 2
1 Analytically, these ideologies are idealtype constructs – i. e. they are to be viewed as means of
discussion on rather than mutually exclusive categories (Stier 2003). Also, typically universities
and educational policy-makers do not adhere to merely to one of these ideologies, but vacillate
between them.
2 Similar ideas can be found in Habermas’ notion of deliberative democracy.
3